Top 5

Top 6 Stories Worth Reading — October 2024

Oct 31, 2024

Each month this fall, LCV Victory Fund and affiliated entities are sharing stories about the impact of our work. This month, you’ll see our latest hard-hitting campaign ads and learn about our 380,000 canvassing conversations, how we’re reaching infrequent voters, and the partnerships that drive our success.

This Month’s Stories

1. Just Released: Presidential Ad on Climate Change

As we enter the final days of the election, several things are clear. First, people in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida are continuing the grueling work of recovering and rebuilding from recent, devastating hurricanes — and will be for a long time to come. Second, scientists have said definitively that recent extreme weather, including Hurricane Helene, is a symptom of the impacts of climate change. And third, there is only one candidate in the race for the White House who will tackle the climate crisis, and her name is Kamala Harris.

To help bring this point home for voters in North Carolina and Georgia, two critical swing states, LCV Victory Fund recently released a $1 million ad that spotlights the dire threats that increasingly severe storms pose to future generations, and contrasts Trump’s climate denialism with Harris’s commitment to protecting our children’s future.

This digital ad, which is part of LCV Victory Fund’s $155 million investment in the 2024 election cycle, will run in North Carolina and Georgia and is designed to engage young women in the final two weeks of the election.

2. Canvassers Get Out the Vote

In the final weeks of campaign season, our canvassers have been knocking on more doors than ever. The goals are simple: We’re making sure that voters know who the pro-environment candidates are and how those candidates will stand up to Big Polluters to support clean energy, clean air, and clean water. And, we’re making sure that voters are mobilized to cast their ballots in support of these climate champions in the presidential, Senate, and House races.

Canvassing results to date include:

  • 2.6 million doors knocked
  • 380,000 target voters reached
  • 75% committed to voting for Harris-Walz
  • 27,000 committed to remind three friends to vote

In close elections, a well-executed field program can mean the difference between winning and losing. LCV Victory Fund’s best-in-class field program — which includes a mix of persuasion and turnout canvassing and focuses on mobilizing young people and people of color — has helped deliver decisive margins in close races for more than a decade.

Our canvassing conversations draw on years of success and best practices as well as recent research-based innovations. All of this know-how is put to work to engage voters at scale — with more than 2,000 canvassers completing thousands of shifts each week in key states and districts across the country.

Our highly-trained canvassers are maximizing their impact through skillful listening and by sharing relevant and useful information to sway and energize voters. Here’s a look at the results of a few recent conversations:

  • Fullerton, California: Sonya committed to voting for Derek Tran for the U.S. House after learning about his environmental policy proposals.

  • Ferndale, Michigan: Christopher said he was won over by Kamala Harris’s promises to combat the high cost of living and strengthen the Affordable Care Act.

  • Nassau County, New York: Kristina was a Republican until Roe v. Wade was overturned. Now, she only supports candidates who will protect reproductive rights. She made a plan to drive to the polls and vote for Laura Gillen for Congress.

  • Cudahy, Wisconsin: Jason, who was initially undecided, began to consider Harris after learning about her policies to lower the cost of food, housing, and energy bills.

This year, our canvass programs are focused on mobilizing voters in 11 states, including Arizona, California, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Find more LCV Victory Fund updates here. 

3. Partnering to Reach Black and Young Voters

The data is clear. Mobilizing young voters and Black voters may just be the key to winning the White House and Congress in November. Consider that:

Needless to say, ensuring that these voters cast their ballots is critical for electing climate and democracy champions to office. LCV Victory Fund’s strategic partnerships use a variety of approaches to do just that. Along with our partners, we recently announced digital and television campaigns that use innovative audience targeting and proven messaging to connect with and mobilize voters.

Presidential Campaign

LCV Victory Fund, along with partners Climate Power Action and Future Forward (FF PAC), recently released 30- and 15-second ads on YouTube, streaming television platforms, and social media in key battleground states. These latest ads are part of the coalition’s major $55 million presidential advertising campaign and focus on addressing climate threats, replacing toxic lead pipes, and reducing energy and food costs.

The ads continue the campaign’s central theme of Vice President Harris’s commitment to boosting the economy and supporting the middle class. This campaign works in concert with a series of Spanish-language ads released by LCV Victory Fund and coalition partners to engage Latino voters. 

Congressional Campaigns

LCV Victory Fund and Priorities USA Action launched a $2.5 million online campaign targeting core Democratic voters, with an emphasis on young voters and voters of color in 17 battleground congressional districts. The first in the series of ads are running on YouTube and streaming TV from now until Election Day.

The messaging and placement of these ads are designed to turn out low-propensity Democrats in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Virginia. The campaign builds upon LCV Victory Fund’s comprehensive House campaign that includes a combination of paid media and field organizing programs in key House races across the country.

4. Newest English and Spanish-Language Ads in Key Races

The latest LCV Victory Fund ads are running in Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The ads, including Spanish-language versions in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, use a range of approaches to reach target audiences, including animation, hard-hitting images, and specific examples from candidates’ past records. 

Part of LCV Victory Fund’s much larger video campaigns, the ads call out far-right Republicans who give handouts to Big Oil and threaten to do away with climate and environmental protections, while other ads celebrate candidates who advocate for lower utility costs and a safer future.

U.S. House Race Ads

This new series of U.S. House ads includes this one, running in CO-08, which focuses on Rep. Gabe Evans’ record of voting for legislation that allowed big corporations to continue polluting Colorado’s air and water:

Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate Race Ads

In the race between Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey and mega-millionaire Dave McCormick, LCV Victory Fund announced this $2 million digital ad campaign that calls out Dirty Dozen member McCormick for outsourcing American jobs:

In addition to the digital ad campaign, LCV Victory Fund announced an $880,000 investment that expands the current Pennsylvania field organizing program with additional door-knocking and get-out-the-vote mail and texting for Casey and Kamala Harris.

Paid advertising is one of many approaches that LCV Victory Fund uses to reach, inform, and mobilize voters. Along with our canvassing programs, rigorously tested messaging, strategic partnerships, and friend-to-friend outreach tactics, digital and television ads make LCV Victory Fund’s field program a powerhouse that helps elect climate and democracy champions to federal office.

5. LCV Victory Fund Partners with EMILYs List

Forging strategic partnerships with other progressive organizations makes the best use of LCV Victory Fund’s resources and broadens our reach. In addition to the partnerships outlined in story 2 above, LCV Victory Fund recently began working with EMILYs List in support of Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin’s reelection campaign and Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential run.

Together, LCV Victory Fund and EMILYs List are engaging in a new $800,000 mail campaign that will hit mailboxes during the final stretch of the election. The campaign elevates how Trump and Senate candidate Eric Hovde would support a national abortion ban that overrides abortion protections, while Tammy Baldwin and Kamala Harris are fighting to protect our freedoms — including the right to abortion and access to birth control. The three mail pieces are available here, here, and here.

This partnership and its campaign build on LCV Victory Fund’s $3.5 million field program in the state to engage voters on Tammy Baldwin’s commitment to defending clean water, building a clean energy economy, and holding polluters accountable. 

6. GiveGreen’s Record-Breaking Support for Climate Champions

Strategic investments. Collective power building. Vetted candidates. These are just a few key ingredients that drive the success of GiveGreen — the largest fundraising platform for climate action in the country. This election cycle, GiveGreen’s donors have shattered records set by the already successful platform.

Highlights include:

  • 1,200+ pro-environment candidates who have been listed on the platform have been elected since 2010.

  • 50,000 donors to date have made the platform a centerpiece of the environmental movement’s growing political clout.

  • More than $50 million raised and contributed to elect climate champions in the 2024 election cycle, adding to GiveGreen’s $160 million total since inception.

The GiveGreen platform allows donors to quickly support vetted candidates either by donating directly to them or by hosting events to involve friends and family members in their networks in supporting pro-climate and pro-democracy candidates.

The candidates selected for inclusion on the platform are committed to actively working on climate legislation. Specific GiveGreen priorities include: 

  • Competitive Races: Priority is given to competitive races and helping to elect champions who will act on climate, environmental justice, and democracy.

  • Environmental Records: Careful review of each candidate’s record on environmental and pro-democracy policies lets donors know they are supporting candidates who share their values.

  • Winning Potential: Evaluation of each candidate’s likelihood of winning means that donors invest in races where their contributions will have the biggest impact.

  • Candidate Diversity: Priority is given to supporting candidates of color, women, and LGBTQIA+ candidates in order to fully address the climate crisis and its direct impact on systematically marginalized communities.

GiveGreen was founded in 2010 to make it simple for climate-minded donors to contribute to the right races at the right times and effect tangible victories for our communities and the planet.